verkramptheid, noun

Origin:
AfrikaansShow more Afrikaans, verkramp see verkramp + linking phoneme -t- + abstract noun-forming suffix -heid -hood.
Ultra-conservatism, especially in attitudes to race; bigotry. Cf. verligtheid.
1969 S. Uys in J. Crwys-Williams S. Afr. Despatches (1989) 396He (sc. Hertzog) appears to be under the impression that there is an essential ‘verkramptheid’ in Afrikanerdom.
1970 Daily News 25 MayMr. Vorster must know as well as anybody that verkramptheid is far from dead in South Africa.
1972 Daily Dispatch 3 June 10It is not only at the black and English-speaking universities that the government is having problems. At its own Afrikaans-speaking and Afrikaans controlled universities students are moving away from the narrow confines of verkramptheid.
1972 Sunday Times 24 Sept. 9The atmosphere in Pretoria, when it comes to having women pouring drinks from behind the bar, is so fouled up with prejudice, bigotry and verkramptheid that you just cannot breathe.
1987 K. De Boer in Frontline Apr. 36I may be a romantic, but I believe that those loyal members of the HNP are the aristocrats of verkramptheid.
1988 E. Vosloo in Femina Apr. 5Say the word ‘Afrikaner’ and many an English-speaker thinks of beskuit, koeksusters and verkramptheid. No matter that ware boere have been known to live for years in Spain, speak five European languages fluently and be truly dedicated anarchists.
Ultra-conservatism, especially in attitudes to race; bigotry.
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